1:5:6 Agreements (Part 2)

Light. The orbs fell too. They seemed attracted to Sharr’Renn’s chest. As the light filled her chest, so did air. Char wasn’t sure who to tend to. She found herself between them as veins of energy spread from Sharr’Renn; they infiltrated the ground, spreading with speed and purpose. When they found their targets, gasps surrounded the tent. Blinking, Lore propped themselves up on their elbows. “Oh… My head.”
“What the hel do you think you’re doing?” Char shouted. “What have you done?”
Sharr’Renn offered her hand. “The touch of Time.” She made sure they were stable on their feet before stepping back and bowing her head.
“What have you done?” Char repeated.
“I saved them. I saved them all.” Lore started. “You heard, this is my mess. If they died, it would be on my hands. They’ve sacrificed themselves for us, so we would know what to avoid. They don’t deserve to die for that.” Their damaged eye shared the same fracturing as Sharr’Renn’s; the light was subdued but ever present.
“Oh Lore…” Char felt her heart sink. She gently rested her hand on their cheek. Char bowed her head to Sharr’Renn before escorting them from the tent. “We should go.” She feigned perking up. “The First City needs us.”
“What’s wrong?” Lore saw through her facade.
“Nothing…” She sighed. She quickly grabbed Lore’s wrist and teleported them out of the village. “It’s a Quatarrian thing…”
“What?” Lore was starting to get worried.
Char wasn’t sure what to say. “Look, I think she took it okay…” She started. Her tone was like room temperature butter, soft and smooth, wholesome and caring, ready to disguise the taste of burnt toast. “You can’t ever do that again.”
“Do what? Help people?” Lore’s worry became anxiety tainted with confusion.
“No… You can’t just go around stopping Quatarrians from dying like that.” She tried to sugar coat it but ended up as blunt as a spoon. “Sharr’Renn was ready, she and her soldiers had sacrificed themselves. To them, they were all all ready dead. While it was incredible of you to bring them back from that, you shouldn’t have.”
“They were only going to die because of me, they risked themselves on my behalf. No one else should have to die because of a mistake someone who looks like me made centuries ago.” Lore’s face broke out into a blush.
“That someone who looks like you should have already cleaned up their mistake. We shouldn’t be here but we are and while we are here, we should probably be as respectful as we can be.” Char rested her hand on their shoulder. “I’m sorry, I know it’s a weird thing. Hel, I don’t know if even I agree with what I’m saying but it’s important that, whatever we do going forward, we try to do what’s best for everyone not just us and ‘the greater good’.” She smiled. “Though, I would like to know how you managed that… Just in case.”
Lore shook their head. “I haven’t the foggiest. I think I’d need either a load of power or a pretty big chunk of Tempora to do it again.” Lore tapped at their Breacher. “Shall we?”
“Lets.” Char did the honours, activating Lore’s Breacher.

The streets were almost entirely empty save for a handful of builders and surveyors. The once perfect roads and pathways were littered with the rubble, coned off with holographic tape, from the flat that Sharr’Renn had shown them. Despite never setting foot in The First City, both Lore and Char knew exactly how to get to The First Building. They followed the outer wall; it was polished to a near mirror shine; perfect white pillars, banded with a coppery metal, juxtaposed against the deep red brickwork. The walls towered over them giving Lore the same sense of claustrophobia they felt during their escape from Sheffield. It only got worse as they travelled further into the city and towards The First Building itself.
“Why do they call it The First Building?” Lore had their head on the swivel, constantly surveying their surroundings. The dense forest of buildings loomed overhead.
“They don’t. That’s what it literally translates to in English but we call it Tarr’Cyneilbaud.” Char bobbed her head. “It means… The eldest protector. Tarrquu was built around it. The building we’re going to was built around it. As the settlement advanced and grew, a newer building was built around it, using the original as a time-capsule of our society as it was. The same thing was true when the next layer was constructed. It’s like a massive museum except no-one can get into the oldest version of the building.”
“How big is it then?” Lore found themselves distracted by a white shadow that appeared to be following them.
“I would say it’s about the same size as the campus on Johned maybe a bit bigger.” Char tried to remember everything she knew about Quatarr. “We should be nearly at the old city.”
“Old city?” Lore’s question was answered almost as soon as it was asked.

A railing stopped them before they could fall into the old city. A crater, nearly fifty-two kilometres in diameter and one and a half deep entrenched the old within the new; walkways and towers climbed the walls linking the two. At the very centre of the crater, a monolith of a building, a giant of red, white and copper that easily cleared the crater, reaching up to tower over all of Tarrquu. Giant pneumatic pipes fed into the centre and various points in the old city; capsules carrying people and cargo could be seen flying through them.
“We’ve got two options. We can either take a Sky Pod.” She pointed to the tubes. “Or we could go down to the U-Rail. It’ll take a bit longer but it could be fun.”
“Should we really be sight seeing?” Lore tried to focus on the white outline; it was keeping its distance. “Maybe a little wouldn’t hurt.”
“Well, we’ll need to be at the top of The Tarr’Zendwr, that’s where any negotiations will be taking place, so, how’s about we take the U-Rail from here to an inner ring station then a Sky Pod the rest of the way.” Char pointed to one of the points where the tubing went underground. “Now we just need to find the nearest station…” She scratched her head.
“Over there?” Lore pointed to one of the towers that ran down the crater wall.
Char nodded. “That’ll do it.”
“Hold on, why don’t we just Breach over?” Lore started eyeballing the co-ordinates for The Tarr’Zendwr.
Char scoffed. “Because we’re only walking over there. It’s not even a hundred meters.”
“I meant the tower.” Lore rolled their eye.
“Because you can’t.” Char shook her head. “And I wouldn’t even bother trying unless you fancy being scattered to the wind.” She showed a holographic cross section of the building. “The core of the building was built nearly six millennia ago from radioactive minerals which have decayed since construction. While harmless, it’s irradiated the entire tower so any attempt to Breach or teleport in would cause an intense temporal shearing effect. It’d be like throwing a match into a room full of gas. You’d be shredded before you even realise you were dead if you’re lucky or the moment you opened the Breach if you weren’t.”
“Okay… I guess a walk couldn’t hurt.” They chuckled.

They walked along the cliff’s edge, still alone on the cobbled road. Almost. The white silhouette followed, keeping its distance but remaining their only travelling companion.
“Where is everyone?” Char span about, her arms out as if to point at the lack of people. “Apart from those builders, we’ve not seen anyone.”
“Maybe there’s a curfew? Would make sense given the rise in terrorist attacks.” Lore shrugged. They too span about. Though they could see the figure through their right eye, their left was blind to its presence. “Although… It’s the middle of the day?” They shrugged again.
“Could be an Illia situation.” Char suggested. “Only allowed out during specific times.”
“In that case, we better hurry before we arouse unwanted attention.” Lore started to jog. With a chuckle, Char joined them.
At their increased pace, Lore was beginning to feel the effects of Quatarr’s increased gravity; it slowed them slightly but they persevered. It didn’t take them long to reach the tower. It stood out compared to the surrounding architecture; where the buildings in the new city were red, white and bronze, the towers appeared largely monochromatic, trading the red for a deep grey while maintaining the bronze and white accents. The doors opened before them, revealing a lift. A motion sensor activated the muzak as they crossed the door’s threshold, starting a bubbly and strangely inappropriate theme for their journey downwards. The internal gravity generators were working overtime as they plummeted down the cliff at extreme speeds; they were clearing nearly a hundred metres a second until the moment before the bottom when they decelerated to stopping in a blink. Even though the journey had been standard for a lift, something about it turned Lore’s stomach. They stumbled out, dry heaved then took a deep breath.
“You alright?” Char patted their back. “I had no idea it would be that fast.”
Lore screwed their eyes up and shook their head. “I’m fine now… I think. I don’t know what happened though. The lift was fine until it stopped.”
“Strange.” Char looked around to get her bearings. “Ah! A visitor sign!” Conveniently placed by the entrance or exit to the lifts, a series of maps detailing the old city. Char looked across them until she found the one with the local transportation routes highlighted. “So… It turns out we made the right choice anyway as The Tarr’Zendwr can only be accessed by one Sky Pod route and that Sky Pod can only be accessed by taking an employee U-Rail.”
“Slight problem…” Lore paused. “We aren’t employees.”
“Maybe we aren’t but I’m willing to bet they use a biometric sensor. I’d say our DNA is close enough to our original counterparts so it should just unlock.” Char gave a nervous smile. “At least that’s my thinking. If I’m wrong, we might get lucky and the authorities will escort us to Tarr’Zendwr anyway.”
“I get why my DNA might be in the database but are you sure yours would be? No offence but you weren’t the highest ranking officer…” Lore scanned the map for anything they could read.
“Ah… That’s a good point” She scratched her head. “Maybe we could… No.”
“What?” Lore waited for her to continue.
“We could take a line to The Warrior’s archive.” She pointed to a point at the base of Tarr’Zendwr. “We’d have to break in but, if we can, we could use The archive to get where we need to go.”
The words at Char’s fingertip flickered with a white light, transitioning from Quatarrian script to something more understandable to Lore. “Sha’Tara.” they whispered.